Jiří Anderle

“I created a series of graphic works and when one of my colleagues from the Academy saw it, he said: ‘This can’t just lay here. Art historians must see it.’ Such a selfless peer he was, without grudge or envy: ‘I like it so much, I have to show it to Dr. Mašín. And to Kotalík.’ These two saw it and told about it to professor Míček who included me in a breakthrough exhibition which took place here in 1966 on the occasion of the International Association of Art Critic’s congress. The topic was clear – current tendencies of Czech fine arts. Furthermore, the catalogue started with the sentence: ‘The exhibition is framed from the youngest to the oldest generation. From A to Z, from Anderle to Zrzavý.’ At that instant I lost all of my friends from the arts world. I was holed up with the Black Light Theatre when suddenly I crawled up as a snake out of the hole with such a glorification. Anyone would be annoyed by that. Moreover, I was travelling the world.”

“Once, Bohumil Hrabal was at our place; he used to come every Tuesday. Suddenly, a mailwoman showed up and brought a telegram. I read it, passed it to Bogan (Bohumil) and told him: ‚Somebody is probably kidding me. It is impossible that I would have won the Grand Prix at such an important biennale. Especially since Adriena Šimotová won here last year.‘ He replied: ‚Well, let’s go to the post office and ask whether it is possible to falsify a telegram.‘ We walked across the Hradčanské square, passing those canonical houses. I remember Bogan telling me: ‚Whenever I go this way past this gate and corner I have an angst, waiting for a leg to appear and kick me. You are in the same situation as me. My books get published... The King of England was published in Swedish and Italian. But nobody talks about it here. Remember that we live in a country which doesn’t forgive somebody’s success. We must learn to mute our gloss.‘ I remember these exact words. We entered this post office and he asked at the counter: ‚We’ve gotten this telegram, please check whether it is genuine or whether someone is just making fun of us.‘ It was this tiny office right across the entrance to St. Vitus cathedral. The lady had a look at it and said: ‚It all fits, it is genuine.‘ And he replied: ‚See, dude, congratulations!‘“

“Right at the beginning of the war, Pavlíkov suddenly filled up with an incredible amount of people since the Germans were throwing the Czechs out of the Sudetenland and the Czechs were moving inland. We’ve had so many new friends among those boys and girls. Pavlíkov was so crammed that those coming from the Sudetenland would have to live in pear drying rooms. But for us kids, this was fantastic because it broadened our game territory. Small kids, our friends were living in the pear drying rooms. In front of the rooms were fields, hop gardens, orchards… So we played with them in there. It was not for us to realize that it was a tragic consequence of war. Children have their own very intense world, filled mostly with children’s games.”